We have talked about advergaming and things like Second Life and World of War craft. But, we haven’t talked about how the fantasy world is hitting up the sport industry. Fantasy sports such as football, basketball, and baseball are all the craze amongst sports enthusiast and it’s paying off big time for TV ratings. For example, the return of the NFL football season has allowed NBC to crush its competition during primetime with Sunday Night Football. NBC had 11.4 million viewers one week, which was roughly 5 million more than the next best network. The NFL has stated that the rise in fans playing fantasy football leagues has gotten more fans in to the games. Before, fans would pay attention only to their favorite teams. With fantasy football, fans are focusing on many teams that in the past they would not have cared about. Now, with fantasy football, fans are closely watching many games specifically to see how their fantasy players are performing.
Fantasy football allows regular fans to become more involved in the NFL. Fans can create a league and draft players just like you see on television. Fans manage their team just like a General Manager would and compete with other teams in the league.
The NFL has also stated that other social media outlets have helped increase ratings. Fans texting each other during games or posting comments on their Twitter and Facebook pages has also increased the interest in the games.
I never would have though about how impacted fantasy sports are by social media, but your right, they are affected alot! People are able to text or tweet instantly once a faulty play or awesome move occurs. We are more in the loop than ever.
ReplyDeleteFantasy football definitely has sparked an interest in the past years. People now compete against each other for prizes and bragging rights. This competition has created the desire to closely follow their fantasy player's stats on game day. I never thought of it, but it makes sense that fantasy football has affected multiple social media outlets due to the level of user e engagement and in turn it has helped increased NFL viewer ratings.
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